Born in Saint Petersburg into a musical family, Inga Ulokina began playing the violin at the age of four under the guidance of her father, Igor Ulokin. She continued her studies at the Saint Petersburg City Music School under the guidance of Professor Andrey Portsellan, one of the distinguished representatives of the renowned Saint Petersburg Violin School. This exceptional artistic tradition, celebrated for its expressive sound, technical excellence and musical depth, laid the foundation for her future artistic development.
First awards and studies
At the age of eleven, she received her first award at the Young Music Talents and Composers Competition, held within the VI Saint Petersburg International Festival of Contemporary Music.
She is the recipient of numerous awards at national and international violin competitions, including First Prize at the Croatian National Violin Competition, First Prize at the Alpe Adria International Competition in Gorizia (Italy), First Prize at the Reinhold Glière International Competition in Moscow, together with prizes at many other distinguished international competitions.
She studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, graduated summa cum laude from the Academy of Music in Zagreb under the guidance of Professor Goran Končar, and continued her postgraduate studies at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz.
In 2002, she received the Dean's Award of the Academy of Music in Zagreb.
During her studies, she also refined her artistic skills under the guidance of Professor Evgenia Chugaeva and Professor Ilya Grubert, whose mentorship profoundly influenced her musical and artistic development.
A concert career
As a soloist, she has performed with the Symphony Orchestra of the Joseph Fux Conservatory in Graz, the Slovenian Philharmonic Chamber String Orchestra, the Grex Symphoniacorum Symphony Orchestra of the University of Ljubljana, the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra, and the Ljubljana String Ensemble.
From 2004 to 2006, she was a member of the renowned Zagreb Soloists Ensemble, appearing at leading European music festivals. As an orchestral musician, she has collaborated with the Linzer Philharmonia, Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, Kammeroper Köln, and the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra.
From 2011 to 2019, she served as an honorary member and concertmaster of the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Maxim Fedotov. Since 2017, she has been teaching violin and chamber music at the Rogaška Slatina Music School, while also serving as the artistic director of the Ljubljana String Ensemble.
Education and the Oskar Rieding Competition
Alongside her concert career, Inga Ulokina has devoted a significant part of her work to music education and audience development. In 2015, she created Happy Notes, an innovative educational game for young violinists, which received highly positive reviews from the Music Academies of Ljubljana, Munich and Saint Petersburg, together with recommendations from Arco UK ESTA Magazine and Kvinta ESTA Magazine. She later expanded the concept by developing educational materials for beginner guitarists, presented at the 7th ESTA Congress, where they received several national and international professional reviews.
Since 2016, she has been the founder and artistic director of the International Oskar Rieding Competition, established in collaboration with Dr. Maruša Zupančič and the Institute of Musicology of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU).
To date, the competition has welcomed more than 1,000 young musicians from over 35 countries, making it one of the leading international violin competitions for young performers in the region. The project has also internationally been presented by SIGIC – the Slovenian Music Information Centre, as an important contribution to the promotion of Slovenian musical heritage and international cultural cooperation.
Musical fairy tales
While remaining firmly rooted in the concert stage, her artistic journey has naturally expanded into new forms of artistic expression. In collaboration with outstanding Slovenian and internationally acclaimed musicians, dancers and singers, she creates original musical fairy tales that introduce the youngest audiences to the world of classical music. Combining live performance, storytelling, dance and chamber music, these productions offer children their first encounter with classical art in an engaging, imaginative and memorable way.
Her productions include original adaptations of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Snow White, The Fragrance of Love, and many other timeless masterpieces, thoughtfully reimagined for young audiences while preserving their artistic essence.
Over the past seasons, these productions have been presented in more than 70 performances across Slovenia, Austria and Croatia, welcoming over 10,000 children, parents and grandparents. For many young visitors, these performances have become their very first encounter with live classical music, ballet and musical theatre.
Following their remarkable success, the project continues its journey in the upcoming season with new productions, artistic collaborations and performances, further inspiring young audiences and opening the world of classical music to future generations.
The Violin Garden Collection
Alongside her performing career, Inga Ulokina is also the creator and founder of the Violin Garden Collection—a carefully curated collection of historical violins reflecting her lifelong passion for fine violin making, the great European violin-making traditions and the preservation of musical heritage. Through this project, she seeks to reveal not only the artistic beauty of each instrument, but also the stories, craftsmanship and history each violin carries within it.
The instruments of the Violin Garden Collection are carefully restored and maintained by the internationally awarded Slovenian master luthier Pavel Skaza. Their authenticity, condition and artistic value are further supported through the expertise of the distinguished Viennese master luthier and internationally recognised violin appraiser Gerlinde Reutterer, who collaborates on the certification, authentication and professional evaluation of the collection. Together, this partnership ensures that every instrument is preserved according to the highest professional standards while retaining its historical integrity and unique artistic voice.
An Artist
Above all, Inga Ulokina is a concert-performing violinist. Every project she creates grows naturally from that artistic identity. Teaching, educational initiatives, international competitions, musical fairy tales for children, and the preservation of historical violins are not separate pursuits, but different expressions of the same artistic journey—guided by the desire to share, preserve and cultivate the art of the violin, while bringing classical music to ever wider audiences and future generations.
"The voice of her violin is like a nightingale singing."